Kevin frowned as he flipped the documents in front of him. The court officer who was in charge of passing him some files from detectives on a few criminal cases that his employees were in charge of, decided to make him pissed. The amount of information inside each file was not enough and when Kevin began to ask him where the others were, the officer shrugged and yelled at him.

                “Do you know that it’s hard to arrange everything and now you ask me where the other papers have gone?”

                The lawyer eyed him angrily and he swore if the officer uttered one more word, he would really get mad and he did not want that to happen. He’d had enough of dealing with irresponsible people who didn’t know how to work things right.

                He faked a smile and that was the best he could do.

                “So, I have to meet the detectives myself, right?” Kevin asked. How nice, now he had to get back to the firm and told his employees in charge of the cases to meet them in person by themselves.

                The officer scoffed. “Of course. It’s not like I know everything about those damn files.”

                That’s it. This man really knew how to draw temper on his forehead.

                Kevin put all the files inside his briefcase and slammed it down right in front of both of them. The officer cursed something while rubbing his left chest. The lawyer ran his fingers through his hair and let out a big sigh.

                “Do you know what manner is?” He asked.

                “Are you asking me to explain?” The officer retorted. Clearly, he didn’t have manners and Kevin wanted to make him fix that badly.

                “No.” He paused. “I’m just going to write a report on you. Let’s see what you’ll be doing in one week. Pretty sure it’s not going to be here anymore.”

                Kevin took back his briefcase and gave the officer one last glare before building his steps to walk away from the stuffy room which was full of paper smell and cigarette smoke. Unhealthy environment for such place and he thought no one is allowed to smoke during working hours.

                Morals. People are losing morals.

                When he almost reached the stairs, heading down to the main entrance, he heard someone called for him and the sounds of footsteps were getting nearer and nearer to his ears. Kevin turned around and he wasn’t surprised at all at the sight before him.

                The officer did look apologetic and he looked like he was asking for forgiveness. There were also a few files in his hands. Kevin didn’t want to ask about those yet. He just wanted to know why he was chasing him.

                “What are you doing here? You should be smoking.” Kevin said. Sarcasm was always nice if it was used to get things together.

                “I… Sorry about just now. I was not in the mood.” The officer shook his head. Then, he handed out the files to him. “These are the files. I just found them on the shelves.”

                Kevin took them and nodded approvingly as he checked the content. He held them properly, eyes looking at the now scaredy-cat officer. “Do you know how much work I have to do if you didn’t give these to me? Going to the police station and found nothing and then coming here where you finally found it and said sorry. Too much work.”

                “I’m really sorry, Mr Woo.” The officer lowered his head. He stood still and didn’t say anything.

                Kevin sighed and fixed his tie which almost choked him. The lacking of oxygen, ha. He needed to move as soon as possible.

                “Never mind, thanks for the files.” Kevin waved them in front of the officer’s face and strutted away from the man again.

                As he headed to the main entrance, he heard a very familiar voice talking to someone. He looked towards the source of the voice and a smile appeared on his face.

                His neighbor, Ahn Hyojung was busy discussing something with someone. Kevin didn’t know if he should go and greet her. He checked his watch and noticed that he still a lot of time before he could get back to the office. Kevin waited until Hyojung had done talking and approached her.

                “Oh, Mr Woo!” Hyojung waved at him when she spotted him. 

                Kevin greeted her back. “Hey, what are you doing here? Registering something?”

                Hyojung shook her head. “Nope, not really. I have to talk about some little complicated things with a few officers here.”

                He didn’t lie when he heard somewhat sigh coming from Hyojung. Officers. Did she have problems with the officers too?

                “Oh. One of them actually blew me off. Almost ruined my lovely morning.” Kevin shrugged. He held his briefcase properly and sighed as well.

                Hyojung nodded at his statement. Hmm, when she came here just now, she was yelled by this angry officer and she didn’t understand why on earth did the man do that to her? It wasn’t like she was doing something bad. She was just asking a few things she didn’t quite understand about the document she was holding.

                “That’s bad.” Hyojung commented. “I guess they’re just not in the mood.”

                Kevin nodded. It was actually funny that they seemed to bump into each other quite often. And the fact that they were now neighbor added much more funny elements to it. The world was indeed small because both of them were somehow related to each other. Dongho, Kevin’s friend, was Hyemi’s boyfriend and Kiseop used to have blind dates with Hyojung.

                “Don’t you think it’s weird that we keep, you know, seeing each other’s face almost every day?” Kevin blurted out. Wait, he just wanted to keep that question inside his head.

                Hyojung shrugged. “I don’t see it as weird. We’re neighbors now, aren’t we?”

                “I know but… how my friends are related to you and your sister.” Kevin grinned. Okay, maybe that was not the time to discuss about stuff like this. They still got a lot of hours to spend back at house if they were really interested in talking about their life.

                Hyojung thought for a while. She tried to remember every single event that reminded her of her interaction with Kevin’s friends. First of all, her sister who was dating Dongho. Second, the fail blind date with Kiseop (it’s not a failure because they actually became friends). Lastly, her friend who was one of Kevin’s friends’ fiancée. Oh, too much relations.

                “Yeah.. I guess we are destined to meet and be friends.” Hyojung smiled. Then, she realized what she just said. Friends? What on ground were you thinking about, Hyojung? Being friends with Kevin was just too much to handle. Before Hyojung could say anything about it, she heard the man chuckling.

                “I guess so, too.” Kevin showed his toothy smile. “Anyway, I’m heading back to the office. See you later, Miss Ahn.” He gave her a smile before moving away from her.

                Hyojung shook her head while smiling sheepishly, alone in the middle of the hallway. Friends sounded just nice. She would be proud to have such amazing lawyer as a friend of hers. Coughing a bit from her dream, she paced from the court building.

                Her phone vibrated and she decided to take the call even though she had forbidden herself from picking up any calls from her handset during her work hours. Hyojung only took calls from her office phone because she wanted to discipline herself.

                The caller ID showed her sister’s number and with a groan, she answered the call.

                “What is it, Hyemi? And how many times should I tell you that you must not call me around this hour?” She nagged.

                Hyemi, on the other line, sighed irritatingly. “Stop the blabbing. I have something important to tell you.”

                “Yeah right. It’s always important when it’s actually not.”

                “Unnie, you better listen to me first.” Hyemi said.

                “Alright, alright. Tell me now.” Hyojung was afraid that her sister might cause trouble again and she’s calling her now because she knew she had to make her clear everything up for her again. Typical Ahn Hyemi.

                Hyemi squealed excitedly. Now it made Hyojung more on the nerve. “Unnie!”

                Hyojung grunted. “Can’t you just tell me already?”

                “Unnie, our community’s president came to our house and asked me whether you’re going to enter the Dessert Dash competition this week or not and guess what?”

                Dessert Dash was an annual dessert competition held every summer in their neighborhood. Hyojung was always the one to join. She joined it because she loved the atmosphere of competitiveness among the participants and it was always satisfying to have other people tasting her delicious food. Well, that’s what people said every time they came to her table and put the sample into their mouth. She never won, though. But she determined to hold the trophy this year.

                “You said yes?” Hyojung covered .

                “Yes!”

                It was her turn to squeal. “I feel like hugging you right now. Oh my goodness, what’s the theme for this year?”

                “It’s cheese.” Hyemi stated. “You should go for you homemade cheese ice cream. Let them have the wild taste on their tongue.”

                Hyojung laughed. “Let’s think about that later.”

                “You better win this year, unnie!”

                She held her phone tightly. “Sure. I’m going to win.”

                They were disconnected. It was one hell of a phone call but she was glad with the news. Hyojung entered her car and began thinking of what she should make for the competition while on the way back to the firm. The thought of winning caused her to smile widely. She was sure of it. She was going to be the winner.

                Kiseop asked Kevin out for a lunch that noon. He had a 2 weeks break at the moment and he wanted to let himself free before he got back to the scene with all the cameras around him. The man waited patiently in his car while waiting for his dear friend to appear from the main door of the firm.

                Kevin took off his blazer and decided to just go without it. He was sweating too much because of the heat and the Ac was being such an to his office. Running a bit, Kevin went downstairs and popped out of the building. He saw Kiseop’s car at the front and he immediately approached it.

                “Whoa there, a kilo of sweats. What’s up?” Kiseop greeted as soon as Kevin got into the car, lowering the temperature of the AC. He loosened his red tie a bit and buttoned down his dress shirt a little.

                “The AC broke down. I felt like crying because of the heat.” Kevin fanned himself.

                “Crying?” Kiseop drove away from the firm. “You’re exaggerating.”

                “If you were in my shoes, you would know how it feels like to be in a toaster.” Kevin rolled her eyes. The AC really let him cool down. Hopefully, the restaurant they were heading too had a lot of AC so he could stay there a little bit longer before going back to his office.

                “Sure, Kevin, sure.” Kiseop laughed.

                A few while after that, they were in a restaurant that didn’t look so pack but it did look so expensive. It was Kiseop’s treat after all, so he didn’t have to worry about paying. His wish did come true when he said he was hoping for a lot ACs. The air there was very cool and the sticky sweat spots on his shirt almost dried and went away.

                Kiseop ordered a set of steamboat for both of them and thanked the waiter. He then took out his phone and snapped a picture of fanning Kevin. Kevin rolled his eyes once again but he just let it slide. He saw Kiseop typing something but then the boy placed his phone on the table.

                “So, how’s life treating you, Kev?” Kiseop asked. He sipped on the plain water after that.

                “Great. With Chinese and pizza takeaway.” Kevin shrugged. He really needed to stop spending too much money on outside food and just cook things himself. But he had no time to even look at the recipe on the internet. What is life, again?

                “Unhealthy food.” Kiseop shook his head. “But you still look skinny as ever. You must be missing your mother’s cooking.”

                “Of course. But life goes on, remember?” He chuckled. “So, what’s up with you, Kiseop?”

                “Nothing much. Travelling overseas and getting jet lag are like the commonest things to me right now.” Kiseop sipped on his drink once again. The heat outside sure had made his throat went dry. Then his phone notified him with something and he immediately checked it.

                Kevin noticed the weird smile on his friend’s face. He started to feel weird. Did Kiseop do something with the picture he just snapped?

                “Hey, why do you keep smiling?” Kevin asked when Kiseop put the phone away.

                “Nothing, don’t worry.” Kiseop chuckled. “It would bring benefit to you later.”

                Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Benefit? To me?”

                Kiseop shifted in his seat and his eyes began to wander round. He was fidgeting his feet and Kevin just knew it. He knew that his friend was up with something. Right before he was about to ask Kiseop again, two waiters came with the steamboat set and told them to enjoy the meal. Kiseop and Kevin thanked them for their service and they disappeared from their sight.

                “You should invite me to your house, Kev. The boys said your house is lovely.” Kiseop took some seafood and poured them into the boiling broth.

                Kevin squinted his eyes. “Yeah, I should.” He nodded. Then, he took his chopsticks and threw some veggies into the soup. “Do you have something to tell me?”

                Kiseop let out a nervous giggle. “Uh.. nope.”

                “Lies.” Kevin looked at him.

                “Okay, Kevin.” He put down his chopsticks and held his phone. “The picture I snapped just now?”

                Kevin nodded. “Yes?”

                “I sent it to my friends. Female friends.” He said. Kevin crossed his arms and tilted his head. Alright, why would Kiseop send the picture of him fanning himself like crazy to her female friends?

                “Excuse me?”

                Kiseop with his nervous smile, showed him the photo again. Kevin looked at it and was it weird to praise himself by saying that he actually looked handsome in it even though he was sweating?

                “Actually, one of my friends asked me out to a blind date. And she said it wouldn’t be fun to have only two of us. She wanted to double it up and she told me that she’s going to bring this one friend of hers. I have to bring mine too. I showed them your picture and they were so excited to see you this weekend.”

                Kevin was still putting every pieces of information together inside his head. When he finally understood what his friend had said, he rubbed his face with both of his palms.

                “Did you just tell me that I’m going to a blind date this weekend?” He mumbled against his hands.

                Kiseop scratched the back of his neck. “Well… yeah.”

                “Do you know that I don’t like that kind of stuff? You should just go alone.”

                “But I’ve told my friend that I’m going to bring you.” Kiseop whined.

                “You’re addicted to blind dates, don’t you?” Kevin glared at him.

                “Hey, it’s actually fun. Even though it won’t or might work out, you still can have more friends!” The other man chimed. He stopped being excited when he saw dark clouds on top of Kevin’s head. Boy his friend must had been boiling.

                “Why do you have to drag me along?” Kevin cried. He didn’t want to go to such blind date. It was like his worst nightmare came true and he had no clue on what to do with these girls. He’s very awkward when it comes to this kind of matchmaking and he’s one of those believers of ‘Love comes when you’re ready for it’. There’s no way he’d do it.

                “Because you’re the only one who’s available.” Kiseop cried back. He wanted Kevin to go with him because he wanted Kevin to know how does it feel like to go on a date again after a while. That man had left his love life way too long and Kiseop believed he needed to freshen up a bit.

                “Screw it, Kiseop. I’m not going.” Kevin frowned.

                “You’re going. Or else I’ll tell your mother that you wanted to be set up with some random girl you don’t even know.” Kiseop nodded and munched on the half-cooked squid he put into the pot. He didn’t want to hear anymore from Kevin because he was the one to make the decision.

                “I don’t remember having such a bad friend like you.”

                “Is that your way of saying thank you?”

                Kevin scoffed. “Yeah, Kiseop. Thank you. What a nice lunch.”

another chapter hohoho!

guys, I need more comments, alright? Or I'll cry :( lol jokes 

hope you're happy with this one ^^